No film Pundit worth her or his salt would have dared to predict that Delhi’s Ashok Vihar, a conservative middle-class locality, will catapult a star to join the ranks of Priyanka Chopra, Deepika Padukone and Katrina Kaif, incidentally, all self-made, power-women of Hindi cinema, among others.
But here is Taapsee Pannu. a self-made, confident, clear-headed, non-sequacious, rocking young star, who was bedazzled by Amitabh Bachchan when she met him for the first time on the sets of Pink but gathered herself and from then on he was a co-star like others. An MBA and a software engineer got into modelling and later films by chance. Grabbing each opportunity and giving it her best made her reach where she is today. Popular and busy in four Indian film industries; Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam and Hindi.
Starting with Telugu film Jhummandi Naadam, she rose to fame for playing the soft-spoken Anglo-Indian Irene in Vetrimaaran’s Tamil movie Aadukalam in 2011. The film won a record six national awards. Her latest release Mulk is earning critical acclaim for dealing with the sensitive topic of the Hindu-Muslim divide in India and making people think about this crucial issue.
Here is our special Spotlight interview with Taapsee Pannu.
